Łukasz Borowicz

Łukasz Borowicz is among the most prolific and versatile conductors in the contemporary Eastern European scene. Borowicz is music director of the Poznán Philharmonic Orchestra. He has amassed a large catalog of recordings that includes complete cycles of the symphonic music of both Andrzej Panufnik and Hugo Alfvén. In 2024, with that group, he backed baritone Samuel Hasselhorn on the album Urlicht.

Borowicz was born in Warsaw on September 25, 1977. He studied conducting at the city's Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy, working with Boguslaw Madey. Borowicz went on for a doctoral degree under conductor <a href="spotify:artist:2OJaTm0rPZVyMA5k5s8vbh">Antoni Wit</a>, and part of his program was a stint as the assistant conductor of the <a href="spotify:artist:3Wqs5ZgX7Orq4YKtPhHdED">Warsaw Philharmonic</a>. He served as an assistant to <a href="spotify:artist:4ZjKZxuO4HZBmekHv7S42d">Kazimierz Kord</a> at the Warsaw National Opera and worked with <a href="spotify:artist:4fwcEh4tMsyFvKvO8w7DKO">Iván Fischer</a> at the <a href="spotify:artist:5ElM3J1gql1jnVyenXe7v2">Budapest Festival Orchestra</a>. In 2006, Borowicz was named the principal guest conductor of the Poznán Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the early 2020s, he was elevated to the position of music director there. From 2007 to 2015, he served as the chief conductor of the <a href="spotify:artist:1b2X6owbUCm8QFq639DYFq">Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra</a>. In 2009, Borowicz made his recording debut on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> label, leading that group in Jeajoon Ryu's Sinfonia da Requiem.

Since 2015, Borowicz has appeared in an impressive variety of guest conducting posts, including those with the <a href="spotify:artist:3PfJE6ebCbCHeuqO4BfNeA">London Philharmonic</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:49TgMBH68KIFiOmLMoUOWY">Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin</a>, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Group. Borowicz has also been active as an opera conductor: his initial appearance with the Polish National Opera was followed by some 150 subsequent performances, and he has appeared abroad with France's Opéra Bastille, among other groups. Borowicz's recording career has been as busy and varied as his concert performances. He has recorded for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22CPO%22">CPO</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hyperion%22">Hyperion</a> (on whose "Romantic Piano Concerto Series" he has been featured multiple times), among many other labels, beginning in the 2000s decade. Borowicz has recorded much Polish music, some of it newly rediscovered, but his repertory is by no means limited to Poland or even to Eastern Europe. He has conducted several operas by the little-known 19th century composer <a href="spotify:artist:57puV85WTwCzOF4nokyFUc">Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński</a>. In the troubled year of 2020, he issued five different recordings, and he remained active through the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing albums on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hyperion%22">Hyperion</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Dux%22">Dux</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22CPO%22">CPO</a>. In 2024, he moved to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Harmonia+Mundi%22">Harmonia Mundi</a> for Samuel Hasselhorn's Urlicht album of orchestral songs, recording with the Poznán Philharmonic. Borowicz's recordings have won several Diapason d’Or prizes in France, and he has received various other awards in Poland, including the Polityka Passport Award (2008). ~ James Manheim, Rovi